A Sewing Journal

lady skater

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First make of 2016 (with cameo from Bailey). (I actually finished this weeks ago; just slow about blogging.) This is a long-sleeve Lady Skater in plaid. I used the long sleeves from the Lady Skater pattern with no modifications and they (fortunately, since I didn’t measure, haha) fit perfectly.

As I have in the past, I raised the waistline slightly and increased the skirt length. The two other modifications I made were adding a contrasting “belt” (shortened the bodice and put in strips of the other fabric in place of the length I removed) and POCKETS.

This time, I did shaped pockets and stabilized the top pocket edge with interfacing. These are much more stable than regular in-seam pockets in a jersey skirt, which makes them more useful. To create the pocket pattern, I just examined my Hollyburn pattern–it won’t work as-is with the Lady Skater skirt, but gives you an idea of what you need to do (draw out the pocket bag and modify the front skirt).

(Incidentally, I have an OTR knit dress with in-seam pockets that are attached at the waistline, which makes them pretty stable AND hidden. I may have to try that the on the next knit dress.)

This dress combines the bodice, skirt, and sleeves of the Lady Skater dress with the neckline and collar of Simplicity 1699.

But then I swapped in an exposed zip for the lapped zip.

And added a sweet patch pocket.

Main dress fabric is an organic cotton interlock. Collar and pocket are a woven cotton I bought ages ago (pretty sure from fabric.com, but a quick search isn’t yielding the name).

This dress is a bit shorter than I usually like (poor cutting layout on my part), but I plan to wear it layered over a midi-length skirt anyway. I also accidentally shortened the bodice too much–long story short, I failed to take into account the fact that the Simplicity pattern’s seam allowance was much bigger than the Lady Skater’s. Oh, well. I just need a wide belt to cover that up, haha.

I’ve been somewhat waylaid by a historical costuming opportunity (more on that when I finish the items), but I’ve at least completed the first item for 2015’s WA Challenge: A cream-colored peplum top.

This is adapted from the Lady Skater dress pattern, following instructions here. I increased the flare using the half-inch slash-and-spread technique and I’m pretty happy with that size. The peplum is about 8.5 inches long.

The other obvious difference from the original dress pattern is the puff sleeves! I used this method (link goes to a PDF) to draft the puff sleeves (separating the pieces by 1/2 inch rather than 1 inch) and added a band around the bottom. The sleeve bands are a bit baggy on me, but it’s comfy this way and I don’t think it looks “wrong.” (I also liked the look of the sleeves before I added the bands–they had an angel-wing or kimono look. I still can’t decide whether I should should’ve just left them like that.)

Otherwise, I’d already adjusted the pattern by shortening the bodice when I made the dresses. This time, I also did a sway-back adjustment (instructions here); you can’t tell from this photo (oh well), butI swear it has actually eliminated some of the wrinkling!

I really love this pattern (in case you can’t tell from the fact that this is the third garment I’ve made from it). It’s easy and produces flattering and comfortable garments. I’m looking forward to making some other variations with long sleeves for the fall and winter.

By the way, since many of my makes for spring/summer call for a fairly small amount of fabric, and since I’m stocking up on solid colors in basic shades, I decided to spring for fancy-pants organic cotton. This top is made from organic cotton jersey in “natural”–it’s very soft and lovely so far. The edges curl up like crazy, unfortunately, but since I’m used to this pattern it didn’t cause me too much angst.